Tuesday, March 23, 2010

God's Mobile Home

I have encountered a problem in my life. A long time ago I got saved and my heart became God’s mobile home. A few times a year I would hear a sermon and I would know it’s time to do some cleaning. I would vacuum and dust and be careful to avoid the closets. When all was said and done I would sit back, very proud of myself, and think, “God must love living here.” Recently I discovered that God does not mind a dirty house as much as one with a bad floor plan.

I have been in full time ministry for many years. I have also worked a “secular” job and done ministry on the side. In both cases I still confined God to the same mobile home He had when He first moved in.

I have been thinking about the poor a lot lately. I want to help them, but I don’t have a great deal of experience in that department other than buying the occasional homeless person food if they happen to be conveniently located near the fast food joint I was already going to. And I don’t count what my church does because honestly I am not actively involved in the process past my donations of money or clothing. It takes a lot of work to help the poor ya know. You gotta research places that already help them and then find one that will let you volunteer at a time when you won’t miss your favorite show. Or you can just go driving and try to find some poor people, but it might take hours before you can find ones that suit your taste.

I always thought God wanted to come and clean my house, but what He really desired was a remodel. Cleaning is much more convenient for me. I can get that done in a day, sometimes even an hour. But a remodel can take years in some cases. I have kept God behind the walls of comfort I built since I was young. God wants to knock them down.
My job and even my ministry have been so boxed in. I never gave God the freedom to roam by living outside the box. I think of the apostle Paul and how the Bible says that his job was a tent maker. What if he would have been satisfied with that ministry? What if he would have said, “I provide tents to those in need,” then patted himself on the back for doing “the work of God” and never moved beyond that specific work? If I am a senior pastor or the church janitor, or anything in between, and my ministry is confined to the job that I do then I have just turned my ministry into a vocation. When the only ministry I do is what I do for my “ministry” then I have taken the power of God to work through me to change this world and given it boundaries.

God has been telling me He wants freedom in my life and I plan on giving it to Him. Remodels are messy. And time consuming. But when they are through the value of the house increases greatly. God will not be satisfied with a new coat of paint. He knows where every one of His lost sons and daughters are in this world. He knows where every hurting person goes in the morning to get coffee. He wants the freedom to take you there. Will you let Him? Will I?

We are about to find out…